Opinion There is no other way of saying it, PC makers are in a world of trouble. The slump is getting worse and many punters now believe that we might see two subsequent quarters of double digit decline. The trouble is, they can’t do much about it, at least not in the short term.

A survey of 10,000 US consumers has pointed to Apple and HP taking the top end of the satisfaction ratings for the computing segment in a Temkin Experience study. At the bottom of the rankings were Sony and Lenovo.

The stagnating and eventually declining demand for the traditional PC desktop has had an inevitable knock-on effect in the monitor industry, with the latest report from analyst house IDC lowering its Q4 2012 estimate from 37.9 million to 36.3 million units.